Viewable Storage Facility Project

The Trustees and staff at METC are excited to share the news that construction of the museum’s new Viewable Storage Facility is nearing completion. After five years of planning and thanks to major funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the New Jersey Historic Trust, our long-term plan to create a state-of-the-art collections facility is now a reality. This $1.4 million project offers visual access for the public to observe the conservation and care of the collection through a large viewing area, creating another opportunity for education at the museum. 

The Collection
One of the most important functions of a museum is to be a good steward of its collection that is held in the public trust. These artifacts and archival holdings – what many people feel is the heart and soul of a museum – represent the collective history of a people or place. We use our collection to create exhibits that tell us stories about how our nation, our communities, and our cultures came to be; and without museum collections, those stories run the risk of being forgotten. METC’s collection contains over 8,000 objects, textiles, archival materials, and other examples of the history of New Jersey’s early immigrants. This new space expands our capacity to preserve our collection and strengthen conservation efforts. It also provides a renewed focus on collections management, which harnesses all the museum’s resources and knowledge, paving the way for future digitization of the collection.

Background
For nearly fifty years, the major portion of the museum’s collection was housed in a secure area on the lower level of the historic James Library, which has been the museum’s home since 1970. Additional off-site storage locations contained some of the museum’s larger objects as well as those that were not often accessed for exhibits. As part of our 2015 long term strategic plan, METC began looking to expand its facility to accommodate increased engagement and addressing the needs of the collection was a goal of that plan. In 2019, the collection was severely compromised by a mold infestation which was swiftly addressed and remediated.  But to save the collection from any further permanent damage, the museum fast tracked the long-range plan to create a new facility that would house the entire collection in a modern, environmentally controlled area in the museum.  The first stages of the project were funded by generous grants from the NJ Historic Trust, the NJ Historical Commission, the Madison Open Space, Recreation and Historic Preservation Trust, the Hyde & Watson Foundation, and the Charles L. Read Foundation. The comprehensive feasibility study, completed in 2021, created a design plan, construction documents, and identified the needed collection storage for the next phase in the creation of this facility.

Breaking Ground
Working closely with Historic Building Architects, our historic architectural consultants, METC contracted with the James O’Hara Company, a New Jersey construction firm with experience working in historic buildings. Also part of the team was Storage Systems USA, who fabricated and installed the high-density moveable storage system and Crozier Fine Art Handling to manage the rehousing of the collection.

Completion
We anticipate that the project will be fully completed and the collection rehoused by the end of 2024. As the collection is methodically relocated to the new facility, plans for the museum continue with a grant funded project to reassess two gallery spaces adjacent to the storage facility that currently focus on various tradespeople. These galleries will be reinterpreted to reflect a more inclusive and diverse narrative that includes women’s stories, the immigrant experience, African Americans, and the Native people who lived here in New Jersey prior to the 1700s.